Abstract
The water resources sector of Bangladesh relies on the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) to assess the possible positive and negative impacts on the e nvironmental and social components of the project affected areas. The motivation of this research was to identify the key environmental components, gaps and lapses of current EIA practices in water resources sector of Bangladesh. Under the motivation, this st udy has determined the effectiveness of a water resourc es EIA (Gorai River Restoration Project) for sustai nable implication of water resources development and management projects in Bangladesh. Component-based checklist method and effectiveness review framework were used in this study to draw conclusions and to make environmental decisions on the important secti ons of the studied EIA. Review of the key aspects a nd the analysis of the effectiveness framework disclos ed that the studied EIA is well performed and have considered sufficient information for decision maki ng, but the residual and unavoidable impacts were n ot identified for all the important environment compon ents in the construction and operation phase. Inclu sion of important environmental and social components under different intervention scenarios, consideration of alternative flow regimes, suggestions and analysis of different project interventions ensuring public participation were the key strengths of the studies EIA. The considered environmental issues and aspects of this study can be used as guidelines for the future EIAs under the similar geo-environmental contexts. The developed review framework can be implemented in water resources EIA review process to ensure longterm sustainability of water resources projects.
Highlights
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a government-mandated prerequisite for the implementation of a project which has a potential for significant impacts on the environment (Glasson et al, 1999). Wathern (1990) defines Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) as the assessment of the environmental impacts and it helps to identify alternative options which ensures the project’s sustainability both in environmental and socio-economic standpoints
The result section contains the major inclusions in the EIA study and the recommendations are suggested considering the results from the effectiveness review framework and component-based checklist methods and the decisions are done using Sadler’s rating scale (Sadler, 1996)
Momtaz (2002) stated the EIA process in Bangladesh and reviewed an EIA of drainage rehabilitation projects based on the EIA framework of Modak and Biswas (1999) and a qualitative analysis was done under the broad categories but in this review study, the rating scale was used for every single components in the checklist and included the important evaluation criteria considered by Momtaz (2002) to make the study more applicable for the other sectoral EIAs
Summary
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a government-mandated prerequisite for the implementation of a project which has a potential for significant impacts on the environment (Glasson et al, 1999). Wathern (1990) defines EIA as the assessment of the environmental impacts and it helps to identify alternative options which ensures the project’s sustainability both in environmental and socio-economic standpoints. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a government-mandated prerequisite for the implementation of a project which has a potential for significant impacts on the environment (Glasson et al, 1999). Water resources interventions fall under the red category of industrial activities under the Environmental Conservation Act of Bangladesh (DoE, 1997). For the water resources projects of Bangladesh, EIA acts as a pre-requisite for the proposed project feasibility and sustainability (WARPO, 2005). EIA Review is the process of checking the standard of an EIA to decide whether the proposed project gains approval and operation or not (UNEP, 2002). Environmental considerations and aspects were reviewed and the effectiveness of the conducted water resources sector EIA were assessed based on the established EIA review methods
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